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Moroccan Chicken Pie

I hate chicken pot pie. I think it usually tastes mushy and, well, really just gross. So when I spotted this recipe, I was initially suspicious. It seemed a little too close to chicken pot pie. But if this is chicken pot pie, then sign me up! I loved it! The spice mix is amazing, the chicken was tender and the phyllo, well, I won’t lie. The phyllo is a pain to work with. So fragile! So flaky! So messy! But in the end, so delicious.

So, I apologize chicken pot pie. Dressed up, you can be quite tasty.

A small warning: I wasn’t kidding about the phyllo. This is a time consuming dish to make and totally should be made on Sunday afternoon when you have some extra time. Cutting, buttering and layering the phyllo is an exercise in patience, especially when you are hungry.

For the filling:
Heat olive oil in heavy dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened and glassy, about 10 minutes. Add in cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and saffron, stir and allow to cook for a minute. Add in flour, stir and allow to cook for another minute. Add chicken broth and reduce heat to low.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and add to broth mixture. Gently simmer chicken uncovered until cooked through, reducing heat if necessary to prevent boiling, about 20 minutes. Stir in pomegranates or raisins. Set aside until chicken is cool enough to handle.

Transfer chicken to plate and shred or chop chicken coarsely. Return chicken to dutch oven. If sauce is watery, simmer over medium heat until sauce coats chicken thickly. Stir in cilantro, season filling with salt and pepper, and allow to cool.

For the phyllo:
Preheat oven to 375°F. In a food processor, grind walnuts, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cinnamon.

Brush same pie dish with melted butter to grease it. Place 1 phyllo round on work surface; brush with butter and sprinkle with about a tablespoon of the nut sugar mix. Top with another phyllo round, brush with butter and sprinkle about a tablespoon of the nut sugar mix. Repeat stacking with 3 more phyllo rounds, butter, and almonds. Fit the stack of 5 phyllos into prepared pie dish and brush top phyllo with butter. Spoon chicken filling evenly over.

Repeat previous phyllo procedure with remaining 5 phyllos and nut sugar mix. Place stack on top of filling, brush top phyllo with butter. Be sure to tuck in edges and drizzle more butter on top to make the phyllos stick to each other. Cut 4 slits through top phyllo stack to allow steam to escape.

Place pie in oven and bake until phyllo is golden and filling is heated through, about 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes and then cut into wedges.

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One Response

this sounds absolutely, amazingly delicious! i also didn’t know that you would call the parts of saffron “threads” or that they were to be used crumbled…learning something new from your blog everytime! 🙂